When it comes to running website personalization experiments, speed always wins. The faster you can launch new website personalization experiments to real website visitors, the faster you’ll have data to show what experiences led to higher conversions.

Conversion rate optimization experts (CRO) call this experiment velocity, and it’s one of the most important metrics that high-performing teams measure themselves on. 

Why is experiment velocity important? Because the more experiments you can validate, the more conversions your website will generate over the same time period.

Just ask Jimmy Flores, who ran CRO at ClickUp. Since joining ClickUp, Jimmy had incrementally increased the experiment velocity, leading to some great results. But ClickUp had ambitious growth plans to support their $4 billion valuation.

Jimmy realized that if he was going to contribute to hitting those growth goals, he was going to need to find more ways to improve their website conversion rates. That meant drastically increasing his experiment velocity.

To do so, he came up with a framework that allowed him to launch 30 experiments in less than 4 weeks using Mutiny. 

Not only did this framework allow him to increase their testing volume by 850%, allowing him to launch over 1,600 experiences in 18 months, but it also led to a step-function increase in the number of conversions the website was creating.

In this post we’ll share the 30-in-30 framework for launching 30 website personalization experiments in 30 days. 

How to run website personalization experiments like a professional

We commonly see two styles of running website personalization experiments:

1. The Planner The Planner often starts with a heavy data analysis to identify the page they should test on, what's working and not working on the page, do a persona exercise, segment the data to see what different segments are doing, hold a brainstorm session, get help from copy and design to come up with a variation, get feedback and iterate, get it approved by stakeholders and legal, then finally launch (probably something quite different than the original hypothesis).

Pro: Data-informed decision making Con: Moves too slowly

2. The Doer The Doer haphazardly chooses a page on the website to start with, thinks up a test to run

based on their gut feeling, and sees what happens.

Pro: Moves really quickly Con: Learning will be hard to replicate across other pages

What the following framework will share is how you can move quickly AND still make informed decisions based on data. And as a bonus, you'll also develop a systematic way to share your experimental findings across other parts of the website and other marketing channels.

The real magic of running website experiments comes when the successful tests can be extracted and shared across product, content, performance, community, field, growth, sales, and customer experience teams. 

Professional CROs straddle speed and accuracy by building robust systems and following a logical framework so they don’t miss any opportunities to increase their experiment velocity and to document insights they can replicate and share with the rest of the team. 

The 30-Under-30 Experimentation Framework accomplishes just this by building on two inputs: Segments and Pages. 

By systematically going through each Segment and Page of your website, you’re able to be more strategic with the kinds of experiments to run based on the customer journey for that specific visitor. For example, instead of just testing whether a red or blue button performs better, this framework will help you to be more prescriptive with your tests to build a logical customer journey.

Keep reading for a run-down of each input and how to begin building your own system.

Overview of the 30-Under-30 Experimentation Framework

Here’s what the full 30-Under-30 Experimentation Framework looks like:

• Week 1: Company Size

• Week 2: Industry Vertical

• Week 3: Paid Traffic

• Week 4: Buying Stage

Each week will be spent focusing only on a few Segments and Pages. So by the end of the 4 weeks, you'll have 30 strategic experiments launched.

Before we get into the specifics, let's have a quick review of some key terminology.

What are website segments?

Segments are different audiences who visit your website. Breaking down all your website visitors into segments makes it easier to craft messaging and web experiences that match the buying expectations of that segment. 

The four segment types we’ll focus on in this framework are:

Company size: Enterprise customers at massive companies will have much different expectations from their vendors than a Startup will. Company size segmentation ensures your buyers get a buying experience that aligns with how they want to be sold to.

Industry vertical: It’s very common for the same product to have different use cases when used by customers in different industries. Industry segmentation takes this into account and allows you to share specific examples relevant to the industry of your website visitor.

Paid segments: If you’re running paid ads, you’re going to have many different messages and creative running on any number of ad networks, each with different offers. Paid segments means the people clicking your ads will see a continued experience and get a superior customer experience, leading to more conversions and lower cost of acquisition (CAC).

Buying stages: Not all your website visitors are ready to buy. And some might already be customers. Buying stage segmentation helps put the right level of information in front of your audience to help move them down the funnel.

What do I mean by website pages?

Pages are the key webpages that make up your company’s website. Not everyone’s website will have the same structure, but the pages we’ll focus on in this framework can be found on nearly every B2B website:

Homepage: The main page visitors see when they type in your website URL.

Pricing: A page showing the pricing model of your product (includes “request a quote” or “contact sales” type pages if you don’t reveal pricing directly).

Signup: Used to collect the contact information of your visitors. Commonly used for product demos, newsletters, or gated content.

Blog: The section of your website where you post educational and informational content not directly relating to your product.

Note: These segments and pages might not be exactly how you describe them for your business. That’s OK – this framework will still work for you. Simply substitute the name you use with one that better represents your company. But at the end, we still want to make sure we’re hitting the weekly experience goal.

Now, let’s get into launching some website personalization experiments! 

Week 1 Personalization Experiment: Company size

In week 1 we’re going to start by segmenting website visitors by company size. This is an important experiment to run because your Enterprise buyers (from big companies) will have much different expectations and needs than buyers from smaller Startups. No matter how good the copywriting and design is, no single webpage can speak effectively to both audiences. For example, Enterprise buyers will likely be required to follow a strict buying process before they actually purchase from you, including security protocols, user permissions, and internal procurement to name a few. This process will require a sales representative to manage the relationship, so using “Talk with Sales” as a call to action (CTA) on an Enterprise focused page actually aligns with the expected buyer journey.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Startup buyers likely don’t have the same amount of red-tape to cut through. They just want to try your product out to see if it works for them and if the price aligns with their budget. A CTA asking a Startup buyer to “Start for free” would be much more enticing for this buyer journey.

For a real-world example, as Sprig grew their product offering, they began to move up-market to serve more Enterprise customers. But they didn’t want to abandon the Startup market, so changing their full website to accommodate Enterprise didn’t seem like the right move.

To continue to serve both Startup and Enterprise customers, they segmented their website visitors and created personalized buyer journeys for every company size. 

The result was a 95% increase in the number of signups when visitors were shown a company-size specific CTA and signup page.

Week 1 Action Items

Goal: Launch website personalizations for two company size segments across three different pages (homepage, pricing, and signup or demo request page). Here are some ideas and playbooks for inspiration: 

Homepage

• Call-out “enterprise” or “startup” in the headline.

• Focus on value propositions like “easy” for startups. Radar did this and saw 249% more leads.

Pricing

• Personalize your pricing page to convert more of your high-intent enterprise visitors. Gatekeeper saw a 25% lift by doing this for enterprise visitors.

• For startups, if you have a free trial try a new CTA of message emphasizing that it’s easy and free to try your product, e.g. “Get started for free”

Signup or Demo Request Page

• DocSend shows their most impressive logos to enterprise visitors, tripling their trial signup rate

• For startups, test out different headline copy, social proof (G2 / Capterra badges) and CTAs. 

Week 2 Personalization Experiments: Layer on industry vertical

Now that you’ve got your website traffic segmented by company size, we’re now going to slice it by industry vertical. 

Your product has likely found product-market-fit in more than one industry. For example, maybe it’s used by companies that work in the healthcare space, but also by companies in the finance industry. This is another great opportunity to add a layer of personalization to reflect the differences in each of these industries and use industry-specific language to demonstrate your subject-matter expertise.

For example, take a look at how Zoom breaks down their four most important industries in their main website navigation bar:

Each of these industries will have different use cases, price sensitivity, and technical language that’s only relevant to them. Personalizing your website to match that industry not only makes the buying experience nicer for the visitor, but it’s also a proven way to increase conversion rates too. 

RStudio built out a vertical-specific content strategy to ensure that the right content was being seen by the right audiences. The result was a 245% increase in conversion rate from those who saw content relevant to their industry versus those who didn’t.

Week 2 Action Items

Goal: Launch website personalizations for two industry segments across four different pages (homepage, signup or demo, blog, and sitewide banner). Here are some ideas and playbooks for inspiration:

Homepage

• Use relevant images and industry specific language in your headers and subheaders. Automox saw a 185% increase in conversion by personalizing the copy, logos, and testimonials based on industry.

• Suggest relevant product content based on the pain-points you know customers in that industry are facing.

Signup or Demo Request Page

• Show customer logos who are in the same industry as the website visitor to take social proof to the next level.

• Feature testimonials from customers from respected companies in that industry.

Blog

• Surface the most relevant educational content that mentions the industry by name.

• Display only case studies from customers in that industry.

Sitewide Banner

• A banner can be an extremely effective way to show your website visitors a piece of content or event that’s hyper-personalized to their industry. 

Week 3 Personalization Experiments: Optimize your paid landing pages to reduce CAC

In a recent survey we conducted in the M2 community, it was found that over 25% of marketers have seen their budgets reduced recently. It’s never been more important to spend your marketing budget wisely and reduce the cost of acquiring customers through paid channels. 

In week 3, the focus will be on personalizing landing pages where you send paid traffic. 

When Notion followed this framework, they were able to generate 60% more conversions without spending an additional dollar on ads.

The ad their audience saw:

The landing page they were taken to (notice how the search keyword and copy matches the landing page):

Their biggest finding: focus on matching the ad creative and messaging with the landing page the visitor is being sent to. The following section shares how.

The two segments to focus on will be UTMs and devices. 

For every ad you create, there will be an associated UTM parameter that specifies the source, medium, and specific content that was shown. We’re going to use the UTM parameters you already have to signal which landing page to show to provide the visitor with the exact same experience. Once this is done, go back and create a variation of the landing page that’s optimized for the specific device that the visitor is coming through on. 

Week 3 Action Items

Goal: Launch website personalizations for two ad segments across four different pages (homepage, signup or demo, blog, and sitewide banner). Here are some ideas and playbooks for inspiration:

Homepage

• Adjust headlines to match the search keyword that the visitor searched for.

• Streamline the design of the homepage for mobile visitors to ensure it loads quickly and they see the right information first.

Signup or Demo Request Page

• Use the same images and copy that were included in the ad.

• Refactor the form for mobile visitors so they don’t get overwhelmed with sections that need answering. Less is more (and leads to 8% higher conversion rates).

Blog

• For paid search, send visitors who click to the pillar page that’s most useful to the keyword used.

• If bidding on competitor keywords, mention the competitor in the headline and call-out the most important differentiators.

Week 4 Personalization Experiments: Personalize by buying stage

Well done, you’ve made it to the fourth week and by now have launched 24 experiments! Here’s a few more that can help you round out 30 experiments in less than 4 weeks and continue to improve your experiment velocity. 

In this last set of experiments we’re going to focus on personalizing our website based on the buying stage of the individual. 

We’ll be using 4 buying stages to segment website traffic:

Aware: A website visitor who has visited the website before, but has yet to check out the pricing page. Evaluator: A visitor who has visited key pages like the pricing page, case studies, and demo, but who have not yet signed up as a free user. Free users: Users who are currently on a free trial of the product. Paid users: Users who are currently paying for full access to the product.

Using behavioral segmentation, we can display different experiences to visitors based on where they are in the buying process, or even encourage them to upgrade their accounts to paid. 

When Livestorm did this, they saw a 63% lift in conversion from free to paid accounts with personalized CTAs.  

Week 4 Action Items

Goal: Launch personalizations for four buying stages across two different pages (pricing and sitewide exit modal). Here are some ideas and playbooks for inspiration: 

Pricing:

• Lower the commitment barrier for those seeing your pricing page for the first time by creating an alternative offer. Brex did this with a "See if you qualify" CTA that led to a 30% increase in leads.

• Show a competitive comparison guide if they've previously visited a page showing comparisons to other products. 

Banner:

• Put your best foot forward by putting case studies in front of late-stage visitors who need a little more convincing. 

• Suggest a video demo for website visitors in the consideration phase of the buyer journey. 

Website personalization key takeaways

Be a pro, not an amateur: Launching website personalization experiments quickly is what separates a strong CRO program from a mediocre one. Follow a roadmap (and be sure to share): But trying random experiments with no roadmap will lead to more confusion and mismatched messaging. There's lots more value that can be captured by sharing your learnings with teammates in other marketing functions, and even other departments.

Scale this framework as you grow: The 30-in-30 framework scales with you! Continue to add more segments and pages as you strengthen your website. Following this weekly cadence gives you clear experiments to run every week to scale your experiment velocity.  Iterate, iterate, iterate: Go back to look at the old experiments to see how they’ve performed so you can continue to optimize them (and let Mutiny do it for you) while your other ones are getting data. This leads to a strong process and culture of testing, to turn your website into a revenue engine for your company.

More website personalization resources

The fastest growing companies in the world use Mutiny to power their website personalization experiments. We're continuously compiling the best tactics into Conversion Secret playbooks so you can grow like them. Check out the full library of conversion playbooks.